The unanswered question is whether more democratic political practices can deliver real peaceful change.
According to the editors of the Daily Star, the moment is urgent. The country's political leaders "must exert themselves to weave the fabric of a new Lebanon ahead of the tear being sliced through the existing fabric by those who have something to gain from destruction."
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Wolfowitz's Third World Critics (washingtonpost.com, Mar 22, 2005)
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Courting the Dragon (washingtonpost.com, Feb 15, 2005)
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World Opinion Archive
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Among Palestinians, optimism is fading fast, says Danny Rubenstein of the liberal Israeli daily, Haaretz.
"The Palestinian expectations from the Israeli government after Abu Mazen's election [in January] . . . were high. They waited for the release of a large number of veteran prisoners; for the swift handover of the West Bank cities to their control; for a freeze on the Jewish settlements in the West Bank," he writes.
Besides one grave terror attack in Tel Aviv, Palestinian militant organizations such as Hamas have abided by truce agreements, according to Rubenstein. "And what are they getting in return?" he asks. "From their point of view -- zero."
"The Israeli mindset of the continuation of the occupation and the expansion of the Jewish settlements is not changing. . . . Most of the roadblocks have remained in place. . . . and in Jerusalem the authorities are completing the wall and preparing new restrictions on [Palestinian] movement."
Rubenstein writes, "All of these are bringing back to the Palestinian street and leadership the old familiar mood of despair and bitterness that presages a new wave of bloody conflict."
And so the Arab spring might lead to a long hot summer.
